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Pascal Wehrlein admitted he ācouldnāt believeā how easily Lucas di Grassi, Jean-Eric Vergne and Joel Eriksson swept past him in the closing stages of Formula Eās wild Shanghai race, despite leaving the weekend with a major championship boost.
The Porsche driver produced one of the strongest double-headers of his season at the Shanghai International Circuit. He claimed pole position and victory on the opening day, then followed it with fourth place in Sundayās race. That delivered a 40-point haul, lifting him from fourth in the standings and 27 points behind Mitch Evans to a nine-point lead in the driversā championship with four races remaining.
Yet the result carried a sharp edge. Wehrlein had been in control of the second race before the track turned against him. As covered in our wider look at the Shanghai E-Prix talking points, the late change in conditions reshaped both the race and the title picture.
The second Shanghai contest began in wet conditions, with most of the field committing to a wet set-up. Di Grassi, Vergne and Eriksson went the other way, gambling on a dry configuration from further back on the grid.
That decision looked risky while the rain remained, but it became decisive once a dry line emerged in the final laps. Wehrlein, who had been leading comfortably, suddenly became vulnerable and was passed by all three drivers before finishing fourth.
For Wehrlein, the gamble was not realistic from his position at the front. āYeah, it feels like a bittersweet race for me because I feel like Iāve lost 13 to 16 points than won 12 points,ā he told media.
He added: āWe couldnāt gamble on a dry set-up when it started raining quite heavily again just before the race. Others did, but they also started further back, so they were perhaps more open to taking risks.ā
Wehrlein felt the outcome could have been very different had the rain lasted slightly longer. āI just think that if it had rained for 10 minutes longer, it would have been another win,ā he said, while still acknowledging the value of Porscheās weekend.
The scale of the late pace swing left him stunned. Asked what it felt like to be passed so easily, Wehrlein replied: āThe track just dried so quickly, and I didnāt see it coming. There were three cars that were flying.ā
His disbelief was amplified by the power comparison. āI was in 350 kW, and I couldnāt follow them in 300 kW. Yeah, it was insane, but that played to their advantage, and well done to them.ā
For Wehrlein, Shanghai was both a breakthrough and a warning: a crucial championship gain, but also a reminder of how quickly Formula E can punish the wrong side of a weather call.
Heās a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.